Chapter VII.—Avoid the Docetæ, and persevere in fasting and prayer.

“For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;” 377
and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, 378
is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. 379Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from 380
the beginning; “watching unto prayer,” 381
and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God “not to lead us into temptation,” 382p. 35 as the Lord has said: “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 383